Political Updates
Chapter Eight: Public Policy and Administration

Policy issues, pg. 329

In April 2001, Texas petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time to reviwe the Hopwood ruling. That decision had resulted in Attorney General Dan Morales's 1997 opinion prohibiting colleges and universities from considering racial or ethnic factors in admission and scholarship policies. In Texas's 2001 petition, Attorney General John Cornyn admitted that the state's education system "has a long history of discrimination against minorities." While expressing a belief that Texas "has rid itself of overt discriminatory practices," he explained that "vestiges of past discrimination remain." Nevertheless, in June 2001 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reviwe this Texas case. As a result, Texas institutions of higher education continued to experience difficulty in recruiting minority students. Some of Texas's African American and Latinos have selected colleges and universities in other states, where affirmative action programs are not limited by restrictions that apply within the Lone Star State.